Progressive politics at Stanford Law School go beyond pro-abortion initiatives
Stanford Law School students recently wrote a letter to the Supreme Court Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch against overturning Roe v. Wade.
Progressive and leftist causes that extend beyond abortion also appear in the law school's curriculum, research, and programming.
Stanford Law School (SLS) students recently wrote a letter to the Supreme Court Justices Thomas, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch concerning the leaked draft of Justice Alito’s majority opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett: the legal community is not letting you shelter behind the excuse of applying the law. Justice Alito’s Dobbs opinion is a radical and inexcusable departure from precedent. It will harm millions of Americans,” the letter states.
Currently over 200 students, chapters, and faculty from multiple universities signed the letter, with over 50 of the signees from Stanford alone.
The students call on the Justices to not “shelter behind the excuse of applying the law” when casting their vote.
In the letter, SLS students also claimed that should Roe be overturned the rights to gay marriage, contraception, and others would be in jeopardy.
“Americans may soon also lose the liberty to decide whom to marry, whether to use contraception, and myriad other freedoms premised on the fundamental right to privacy. If allowed to proceed, this backward slide will usher in a generation of children who have fewer civil rights than their parents.”
SLS appears to have an active pro-abortion culture on campus.
Stanford If/When/How works to train pro-choice students in legal matters specific to reproductive rights.
In 2020, SLS professor John H. Donohue co-authored a study that argued pro-abortion policies lowered crime rates.
The study’s critics have reportedly found Donohue’s decades-long research as “lending indirect support to eugenics.”
Campus Reform reached out to Donohue about the study. He replied that calling his study support for eugenics was a “dishonest or uninformed view.”
“This is a dishonest or uninformed view. Allowing women the right to choose whether to have a child is actually the opposite of eugenics, which was about taking away the right of women to choose whether to have a child,” he said.
Progressive and leftist causes that extend beyond abortion also appear in the law school’s curriculum, research, and programming.
Ralph Richard Banks is a law professor working on a “casebook” on racial justice and law.
Banks explains in a university video that he wanted to give students a “resource” to move “the focus beyond Constitutional law.”
“One of the important goals of this casebook, and of my teaching and writing otherwise, is to broaden the focus beyond Constitutional law,” he states in the video.
In 2020, after the death of George Floyd, SLS created the Stanford Center for Racial Justice (SCRJ).
The SCRJ’s website says that the center focuses on the “pursuit of innovative solutions to the challenges of racism and the pursuit of racial justice.”
SCRJ also works on police reform, incarceration, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
In 2021, SCRJ published a report on school safety that argued police create an environment that is not “optimal for learning” and makes children distrust police as well as “exacerbates well-documented racial disparities in school disciplinary penalties.”
The report made similar claims about police regarding the homeless crisis and mental health emergencies. Overall, the report determined that less police involvement and less police, in general, would be better in these situations.
SLS offers several classes focusing on diversity and race. In addition to Critical Race Theory, a class called “Race, Identity, and National Security” is also available to SLS students.
According to the school’s website, SLS’s class Race, Identity, and National Security, “explores theoretical, historical, and legal policy questions at the intersection of race, group identity, and national security.”
Both classes were offered in the 2022 spring semester.
SLS also boasts a wide variety of liberal student groups and organizations for students to get involved with. Some of the most notable are the Stanford Critical Law Society, Stanford If/When/How, Women of Color Collective of Stanford Law, and SLS for Gender Violence Prevention.
The Women of Color Collective at Stanford Law promotes discussion and community building for female students of color.
“We create spaces where students identifying as women of color can build community and can discuss and process how their identity impacts their law school experience.”
They pride themselves on “creating a close knit community in a historically white, patriarchal institution.”
Stanford Critical Law Society describes itself as a “community of Stanford students for whom social justice is an important component of their legal education.”
The group’s focus is to foster discussion and create a “safe space” where students can discuss the intersection between law and topics like race, gender, and class.
“We seek to foster student discussion on the interaction between law and race, gender, class and sexual orientation among other topics.”
Stanford Law School tuition hit $64,350 for the 2021-2022 school year with room and board coming to $31,557.
”Most single students find they need to budget a total of at least $107,055 for the school year,” the school stated on its website.
Campus Reform reached out to the university and every individual named; this article will be updated accordingly.
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